Interesting that this topic has risen from the archives. A while back a partner of mine in training as well as close friend and myself discussed this issue and posted along these lines .
Our comment/ or question was does your Sensei teach "just Aikido" or does he effectively teach "how to learn" as well.

Neat
At the time, neither of us had ever seen this thread, and it is very interesting to catch all these posts.

It seems to me that learning to learn is almost an indescribable thing. I am VERY visually oriented, but in class, I often learn more by closing my eyes and feeling the flow. (After making sure of safety )

Modeling an instructor is how I seem to catch on best. Lots depends on how well he can convey his own learning process.
Just my two centavos
Lan